Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Jerome Kerviel said he feels
“crushed by the weight of the punishment,” in his first
interview after being sentenced to three years in jail and
ordered to repay Societe Generale SA for its 4.9 billion-euro
($6.8 billion) trading loss.

Judge Dominique Pauthe yesterday held Kerviel solely
responsible for the loss, saying he deceived the bank in
amassing 50 billion euros in futures positions. He found Kerviel
guilty on all three counts: breach of trust, forging documents
and computer hacking.

“I have the feeling like they want to make me pay for
all,” Kerviel told Europe1 radio today. The former trader will
remain free pending appeal. Meanwhile, he said he’ll continue
working as a computer consultant, a profession he got into after
being fired from France’s second-largest bank in 2008.

The trading loss, announced Jan. 24, 2008, prompted Societe
Generale’s then-chief executive officer Daniel Bouton to
describe Kerviel as a “terrorist.” The court rejected defense
arguments that his superiors knew of his actions and that the
bank’s decision to unwind the bets over three days of falling
markets caused the loss.

The bank indicated it is open to negotiations on the
restitution Kerviel was ordered to pay.

“We are a responsible bank and have no desire to drive a
man into debt for so many years,” Caroline Guillaumin, a
spokeswoman for Societe Generale, said in an interview today
with France Info radio. The bank is “totally open” to finding
“a solution reasonable to all parties.”

‘Extremely Symbolic’

The 4.9 billion euro award was “extremely symbolic,” she
said, adding that it was “too early” to say what will happen,
in light of Kerviel’s pending appeal.

The bank’s comments came after government spokesman Luc
Chatel said in an earlier interview today on RMC radio that
“perhaps” the bank could renounce part of its award.

The Paris ruling came days after a federal court in
Manhattan dismissed a U.S. investor lawsuit over the loss. The
court said it lacked jurisdiction because the plaintiffs’ shares
in the bank were bought abroad, in line with a June ruling by
the U.S. Supreme Court. The plaintiffs’ claims the Paris-based
bank knew more about Kerviel than it disclosed also “do not
give rise to the inference” of knowledge, the U.S. court ruled.

The two favorable decisions close the Kerviel era for the
bank, said Pierre Flabbee, a Paris-based analyst at Kepler
Capital Markets who has a “buy” rating on the bank.

Loss ‘Behind’ Bank

“The story is pretty much behind Societe Generale now,”
said Flabbee. “There was a period, notably in France, when the
rate at which accounts were being opened there was less good,
this seems to have ended that,” he said.

France’s Banking Commission fined Societe Generale
4 million euros in 2008 for “serious shortcomings” in its risk
controls. A May 2008 report commissioned by the bank’s board
faulted its internal monitors, saying Kerviel’s supervisors
failed to “react in an appropriate manner to several alert
signals” and missed at least 1,071 bogus trades.

“Societe Generale learned the lessons of this affair from
the outset, and has committed significant human and financial
resources to strengthening all of its controls,” the bank said
in an e-mailed statement yesterday, adding “it continues the
implementation of its development and transformation strategy.”

Compliance Spending

Societe Generale spent 130 million euros in 2008 and 2009
as part of a three-year plan to enhance risk controls, with more
than 200 people working on the project. The program, dubbed
“Fighting Back,” includes training 7,800 employees in “fraud
awareness,” the bank has said.

Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea, 47, in June set a
target for Societe Generale to double annual net income to about
6 billion euros in 2012. He’s counting on higher earnings from
the French branch networks and growth in Russia to help buoy
profit while trimming writedowns at the investment-banking unit.

The corporate-and investment-banking unit, where Kerviel
worked, was Societe Generale’s biggest by profit in the first
half. The division, which was unprofitable in five out of the
past 10 quarters, produced about 44 percent of Societe
Generale’s first-half net income while employing about 7 percent
of the bank’s 157,000 workers.

Oudea, chief financial officer at the time of the loss, was
propelled to the CEO job in 2008 after his predecessor Daniel
Bouton’s leadership came into question. Last year Oudea took
over the additional role of chairman from Bouton.

Management Shuffle

Oudea has reshuffled the bank’s top management. In 2008,
Michel Peretie, the former head of Bear Stearns International
Trading, was hired to replace Jean-Pierre Mustier as head of its
investment bank. Most of the 14 members of Societe Generale’s
executive committee, which guides company strategy, have joined
since 2008, according to the bank’s website and annual reports.

Kerviel’s defense went beyond criticizing the bank’s
control failures, saying his managers actively knew and
encouraged his betting. The court rejected that argument, saying
there was no evidence presented that the bank knew the extent of
his bets before January 2008.

“My first thought was for my father and for my mother,”
Kerviel said, when asked in the radio interview about his
initial reaction to the verdict.

Europe1 asked Kerviel if he had irritated the judges by
being “arrogant” and “cynical” during the trial. “I don’t
think I was,” he responded.

The judges asked Kerviel to enunciate and stop using jargon
several times during the three-week trial in June.